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Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead

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Having been a practitioner and student of Buddhism myself for over 36 years, I can honestly say that Luminous Emptiness is the most comprehensive and clear presentation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead that I have ever read. Freemantle explains every topic she addresses clearly, simply, lucidly and thoroughly, without the confusing jargon that so often leaves the reader lost and confused in other similar books. One senses behind her written words the presence of a compassionate, knowledgeable and gentle friend who wants to make sure that you understand everything she is presenting. Luminous Emptiness by Francesca Freemantle is a must-read for anyone interested not only in the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but in Tibetan Buddhism in general and Dzogchen as well -- beginner and advanced students alike.

This is a book about a very precious book, a guidebook to a guidebook if you will. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Padmasambhava and Karma Lingpa for giving The Tibetan Book of the Dead to the world, and to Chogyam Trungpa and Francesca Fremantle for opening it up to the average English-speaker. Luminous Emptiness is a great help in digesting Padmasambhava's precious teaching on the in-betweens of being.

You can learn a lot from allegory. Because the text (the TB of the D) is not about what it seems to be, the reader really has to work at identifying what, in his/her own experience, the text might be referring to. Instant introspection. The Tibetan Book of the Dead is really good for that, and Fremantle does a fine job of guiding the reader baffled by innumerable Sanskrit names into a comfortable detente, if not full-on interaction, with the text.

Fremantle lets the reader in on a secret: the TBD is actually about your body, world, and experience right now in very concrete terms. I'll give an example that will also give some experience with the technology given in the TBD. Notice that everything and everyone is color-coded? In his brilliant book Love of Knowledge, Tarthang Tulku gives a practical exercise that gives this significance and immediacy:

"Visualize as intense colors the positive, negative, or neutral feeling that accompanies each sensory experience. Sight is associated with white, hearing with green, smell with yellow, taste with red, and touch with blue. 'Feed' the energy of the feeling into color...With continued practice, feelings may grow fluid, no longer arising in expected ways" (303). You might want to give this a try, and then dig into the book again.

This world is becoming less and less liveable, largely thanks to our lousy attitude about things and beings. (The proto-Fascism of the press, pulpit, and politics of plunder and petroleum ain't helping.) Even though it's becoming more difficult to live, we can at least make dying a gesture of dignity and peace. Being aware of death is an old technique for appreciating life, for making life worth living. May your journey be bright.

This commentary on "Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead" combines an extended introduction to the fundamentals of Vajra teachings, an advanced form of "dzogchen" Tibetan teachings, with the text itself, interspersed with her explanations. The misleadingly titled TBoD directs the departed soul which finds itself in need of listening to a posthumous recital by a living guide to acheive its "Great Liberation by Hearing in the Bardo-- or Intermediate or Transitional Realm." You can see even from such vocabulary how this book discusses terms beyond the level of absolute beginners to Buddhism. Fremantle, as an English Sanskrit scholar who then came to translate Tibetan and practice at an elevated level its instruction, does enable those with no previous exposure to follow her fascinating insights and elegantly composed discussion. However, I'd suggest that one may wish to begin with Stephen Hodge & Martin Boord's concise translation with an ecumenically accessible brief commentary, published as "The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead," for an overview. Such preparation would assist the learner; I found Hodge & Boord only after finishing Fremantle, but I'd recommend progressing the other way around!

I faced many conceptual difficulties as I began this work. Like a philosophical treatise, Dr. Fremantle's exegesis builds inexorably, but sentence stacked on sentence. It demands slow, careful, active engagement. This work cannot be skimmed, used as a time-filler, or as light inspirational encouragement. It's of one of the most serious, formidable, and valuable books I've encountered. Fremantle, except for a few paragraphs in her preface, self-effaces herself entirely from the text. She makes her presence transparent, filtering her academic knowledge and her own dharma elucidation into a complimentary study that explores the TBoD as a book for the living, not only the dead-- for the latter group already may be beyond its appeals.

We, however, can learn from it how to recognize the manifestations of what she calls our "buddha-nature," our primordial state that combines the emptiness of constancy beyond time or space with the luminosity of an actively generated matrix of energy. This all sounds arcane, but Fremantle strives to keep her focus accessible, and if you persist with what may be one of the most important books you'll ever find, gradual enlightenment will begin. Trust me, it's a challenge if, like me, you know little about Buddhism. Yet, it's such a bracing intellectual and psychological trek.

You begin slowly to comprehend Buddhism's message from the TBoD: "like the moon reflected in water," (253) visions of the deities as peaceful or wrathful, colors and sounds generated in these bardo journeys, and fractured space and time all represent only our own nature. All's illusory in the sense that nothing's permanent. Our minds, the TBoD implies, are nine times sharper in the afterlife, so Fremantle interprets this to show how much more powerful imagery will be and also how much more capable we may be-- if prepared by meditation and "creation" and "deity yoga" under a guru's supervision-- to recognize all the TBoD tells us reduces to our own "self-display." No gods threaten or cajole outside of our own qualities. These become analogues, to be heard and seen. The TBoD is recited so the dead person's soul can learn to take advantage and overcome fear so nirvana-- "passing beyond suffering" in Tibetan rendering-- can occur and enlightenment can free us by extinguishing our ego, which keeps getting lured in the bardo into another subsquent round of life in "samsara."

TBoD, Fremantle emphasizes, expresses our own imminence. We can begin to see glimpses of this awakened state here, on earth, if we try. Our everyday choices can be linked to the symbols of the TBoD, and here, as with the realm of hungry ghosts and the "four false views," she articulates the mundane equivalents to these overwhelming otherworldly immersions well. Our own qualities, powers, and functions, she stresses, provide the true counterparts for the deities imagined. The visions in the bardo turn "samsara" inside out, the daily phenomena we witness but may not perceive in its transformed quality. It's aimed at "sacred vision," and while we're trapped in language to convey its meaning, ultimately the TBoD pushes us beyond its symbolic forms into inexpressible magic. Again, this may all sound too proverbial or platitudinous until you make your way with awareness and concentration, and it will begin to become clarified if you have the stamina to remain on this arduous but rewarding narrow path to wisdom. A good summation late in the book, pp. 340-44, may serve as a resting place and a point to pause and recoup near the summit.

She warns us against what her guru, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, castigated as "spiritual materialism," our tendency to hang on to a particular state of our soul's evolution, rather than to accept "hopelessness," to let ourselves with a trust in "crazy wisdom" let go into seeing the TBoD as representing, as if in a funhouse mirror, our own present possibility, unveiled. It's a daunting task, but Fremantle's example, with learning to anchor her counsel, may prove the goad we need to delve further-- in her earlier work with Trungpa, in the versions of the TBoD by Robert Thurman or Hodge & Boord, and the similar elaborations on its meaning as Sogyal Rinpoche's "Tibetan Book of Living & Dying."

The book has been prepared with great care. It's written beautifully, yet without the author interfering with her teaching. This skill must be credited to her own practice of its teaching, and she avoids what I assume for lesser scholars might be the impulse to assert her own theories. Instead, she tells us about them. While her book does not go into any real detail about how we can do this according to specific meditation practices, this undoubtably can be obtained from other sources. I'd have liked a glossary rather than an index with a few terms in parentheses, and the endnotes are not always as helpful as I'd wished. These remain minor shortcomings in a text that on every page tells of its depth and mindfulness. The sun is always, she urges us, behind the clouds, and the chance to reach our fulfillment waits for us.

Comprehensive discussion on Bardo the "intermediate-sate" after death; extensive from the Nyingma Buddhist tradition as well as information on the Bardo of dreams and meditation. Teachings on what to expect after death and how to practice transforming body, speech & mind to overcome karmic hinderances. Very in-depth and methodological approach.

Blurb: Francesca Fremantle Ph.D. studied Sankrit and Tibetan (languages) before collaberating with Chgyam Trungpa in 1975 in translating The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Shambala Pocket Classics)Francesca Fremantle presents this text not as solely to be read to the dying but as a guide for living.

My wife bought me this as a gift because I expressed learning more about the "Book of the Dead."
This book was very detailed. I wonder if its used as a Textbook! More detail than I cared to know about.
The wording explaining concepts was overy used. I got to the point that I just started the first letter of the word insted of trying to pronounce the word! If you are a serious religious student this is a book for you. I just wanted a flavor of Tibetan Religous teaching, I sorry to say I wasn't smart enough to finish.

Luminous Emptiness: Understanding The Tibetan Book Of The Dead by Buddhist teacher and practitioner Francesca Fremantle, presents the classic and enduring "Tibetan Book of the Dead" as a sacred scripture for the living to follow in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Extensive writings on the foundations of this profound work combined with a meticulous translation of the work itself, make for an absorbing and strongly recommended addition to Buddhist Studies reading lists and reference collections.